Wendy Morton

Society lotteries are a vital fundraising tool for many charities, community groups, sports clubs and other non-commercial organisations.

The Government is committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources and working with all stakeholders in order to support the industry and ensure there are robust protections in place to protect those at risk.

We will provide further updates to the House soon.

Apprenticeships can support small and medium sized employers (SMEs) to improve their skills base, boost productivity and develop a pipeline of future talent.

To support non-levy paying employers, usually SMEs, to offer apprenticeships, the government pays the full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21 years-old, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 years-old who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care. For all other apprentices, employers who do not pay the levy are required to co-invest 5% towards apprentice training costs.

Employers of all sizes can also benefit from £1,000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18 years-old, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 years-old who have an EHC plan or have been in local authority care. This is in recognition of the additional support that younger apprentices may require when entering employment. Employers can choose how they spend these payments.

Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25 where they earn less than £967 a week (£50,270 a year).

Employers that need help with employing an apprentice, including accessing funding, can access the employer support GOV.UK page, which is available here: https://help.employersupport.apprenticeships.gov.uk/hc/en-gb.

The apprenticeship ambassador network is a group of employers and former and current apprentices. Around 35%of the employers are SMEs. Their remit is to inspire greater numbers of employers and individuals to connect with apprenticeships.

The UK Government has assessed the potential merits of ensuring the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme meets industry needs through a range of measures. The scheme was developed with input from an industry-led advisory steering group which continues to guide its development and implementation. The four UK Governments have committed to the appointment of a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO). PackUK engaged with packaging material specialists to inform fee development, while exemption thresholds were introduced to protect smaller businesses from disproportionate impacts.

To ensure cost efficiency, PackUK is responsible for delivering value for money for producers and managing costs effectively. Additionally, the Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM) was developed collaboratively with stakeholders from across the value chain to support fair and transparent fee modulation. Clear communication channels have also been established to enable businesses to raise concerns and provide feedback. The ongoing collaboration between industry and PackUK demonstrates the continued effort to engage with and meet the needs of businesses, ensuring that the EPR scheme remains both effective and commercially viable.

Food security is national security. We need a resilient and healthy food system, that works with nature and supports British farmers, fishers and food producers.

That is why this Government will introduce a new deal for farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen Britain's food security.

The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption.

We produce 62% of all the food we need, and 75% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year.

Food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes.

UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

Defra works with industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.

The UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade, and recent developments.

Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for the submission of new applications, but existing agreements will continue. We now have over 37,000 live SFI agreements. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed.

We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed.

The third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), co-hosted by France and Costa Rica in June, will be at a critical time for the ocean and a stocktake of progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water.

The UK is supportive of an action-orientated UNOC and looks forward to the event. Defra is leading on the planning for UK attendance at the Conference and is considering along with other relevant departments appropriate official-level attendance in line with UK priorities for UNOC. Formal invitations from the co-hosts have been shared and Defra is considering appropriate Ministerial attendance.

Defra has no current plans to provide additional financial support to local authorities to meet the cost of disposing of fly-tipped waste. We are considering how we can support local authorities to tackle fly-tipping in other ways. Indeed, we are seeking powers in the Crime and Policing Bill to provide statutory enforcement guidance to help local authorities run an effective enforcement service which deters people from dumping waste in our communities. Revenue from fixed penalty notices must also be spent on enforcement or cleaning up fly-tipping.

The majority of funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement is unringfenced recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities, such as fly-tipping. Funding announced by the Chancellor at the Autumn Budget and through the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement will provide over £5 billion of new funding for local services over and above local council tax.

Local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents to Defra, which are published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fly-tipping-in-england. Data for the 2023/24 reporting year is available at this link.

Data for the 2024/25 reporting year is still being collected.

On 11 March 2025, we published forecasts which suggest that Average Farm Business Income has risen in 2024/25 across all farm types with the exception of cereal farms. This follows a fall in income for most farm types in 2023/24, after some exceptional highs in the two preceding years.

This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period.

50,000 farm businesses are already in agri-environmental schemes. SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.

Funding from the farming budget also supports the provision of advice within the sector. The Farming Advice Service can assist farmers to review what advice and guidance is available to meet their business needs.

The high uptake of the scheme means it is fully subscribed. The decision to close the scheme to new applications was taken at that point.

We could not give any advance notice because we needed to ensure fair access to the scheme and avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand.

Since we launched the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) in 2022 we have worked closely with the farming sector and stakeholders to develop and improve the offer to make sure it worked for as many different farmers and land types as possible.

We will continue to do this in order to develop the reformed SFI offer.

We publish regular statistics on Farm Business Income broken down in various ways. Farming evidence packs have been recently updated including key statistics and farm performance. These set out an extensive range of data to provide an overview of agriculture in the UK. We will continue to carry out appropriate and timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development.

On the 11 of March 2025, we published forecasts which suggest that average Farm Business Income has risen in 2024/25 across all farm types with the exception of cereal farms. This follows a fall in income for most farm types in 2023/24, after some exceptional highs in the two preceding years.

Across England, 50,000 farm businesses are already in agri-environmental schemes. We will open up initial applications for CS Higher tier and a revised ELM capital grants offer later in the Summer.

The Government agrees with the need to have robust measures in place to manage the risks associated with facilities that use large numbers of lithium-ion batteries.

The Health and Safety Executive regulates grid-scale lithium-ion batteries within a robust regulatory framework which requires Battery Energy and Storage Systems (BESS) designers, installers, and operators to take the necessary measures throughout all stages of the system’s construction, operation and decommissioning to ensure its health and safety.

Defra is considering further options, including environmental permitting, for managing the environmental and public health risks from fires at BESS sites.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that fishing activities on the high seas in the South West Atlantic are appropriately regulated. This is necessary to safeguard stocks and their significant contribution to the Falkland Islands’ economy as well as the wider marine environment.

Defra continue to liaise closely with the Falklands Islands Government on these issues, and to seek progress on addressing gaps in fisheries management and data collection within relevant international fora including the United Nations and Food and Agriculture Organisation.

We are clear that the vast majority of those claiming Agricultural and Business Property Relief will not be affected by our reforms. Three quarters of estates will continue to pay no inheritance tax at all, while the remaining quarter will pay half the inheritance tax that most people pay, and payments can be spread over 10 years, interest-free. This is a fair and balanced approach, which means farmers in the Aldridge-Brownhills constituency and across the country will be able to pass the family farm down to their children just as previous generations have always done, while we fix the public services we all rely on.

Further support for farmers was revealed by the Secretary of State at February 2025’s NFU conference. This includes a £110 million investment in innovation, equipment, and technology, an increase in Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) payment rates, an extension of the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme for another year until March 2026, an update on the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway’s coverage, and announcements on the reopening of the Capital Grants scheme and on the roll out the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) scheme.

The Secretary of State also announced an extension of the Seasonal Worker visa route for five more years and new requirements for Government catering contracts to favour high-quality, high-welfare products that local farms and producers are well placed to serve, and reiterated the Government’s commitment to uphold and protect our high environmental and animal welfare standards in future trade deals

This will all support farmers in the Aldrige-Brownhills constituency and across the country in delivering public goods for the environment and a profitable farming sector and unlocking rural growth.

The Government has now published a first set of pEPR illustrative base fees. We are assessing industry’s feedback, including on the importance of accounting for the weight and volume of packaging materials, to ensure our methodology is based on the best available evidence to date.

This Government is committed to delivering the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in October 2027, as agreed with the devolved Governments of the UK, and in accordance with the Joint Policy Statement published in April 2024.

The DRS will reduce litter, increase recycling rates, create high quality recyclate for producers and promote a circular economy.

As part of the Government’s commitment to implement Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) and the benefits it will deliver, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is working alongside the Department for Business and Trade to discuss the impact of Extended Producer Responsibility on specific packaging sectors, including glass. We will continue to engage with industry on this matter.

The 2022 Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) impact assessment made an assessment of the impact of introducing the scheme on packaging producers as a whole. This impact assessment covers glass, but does not split the assessment by sector. The Government has now published a first set of pEPR illustrative base fees and is undertaking engagement with all relevant industries to ensure that they are based on the best evidence to date. As part of this engagement, impact on specific packaging sectors is being discussed.

The 2022 Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) impact assessment made an assessment of the impact of introducing the scheme on packaging producers as a whole. This impact assessment covers glass, but does not split the assessment by sector. The Government has now published a first set of pEPR illustrative base fees and is undertaking engagement with all relevant industries to ensure that they are based on the best evidence to date. As part of this engagement, impact on specific packaging sectors is being discussed.